(1)
"Sanitary facilities" means sanitary sewers, force mains, lift or pumping
stations, and facilities for the treatment, disposal, impoundment, or storage
of wastes; equipment and furnishings; and all required appurtenances and
necessary real estate and interests in real estate.

(2)
"Drainage" or "waters" means flows from rainfall or otherwise produced by, or
resulting from, the elements, storm water discharges and releases or migrations
of waters from properties, accumulations, flows, and overflows of water,
including accelerated flows and runoffs, flooding and threats of flooding of
properties and structures, and other surface and subsurface drainage.

(3)
"Drainage facilities" means storm sewers, force mains, pumping stations, and
facilities for the treatment, disposal, impoundment, retention, control, or
storage of waters; improvements of or for any channel, ditch, drain, floodway,
or watercourse, including location, construction, reconstruction,
reconditioning, widening, deepening, cleaning, removal of obstructions,
straightening, boxing, culverting, tiling, filling, walling, arching, or change
in course, location, or terminus; improvements of or for a river, creek, or
run, including reinforcement of banks, enclosing, deepening, widening,
straightening, removal of obstructions, or change in course, location, or
terminus; facilities for the protection of lands from the overflow of water,
including a levee, wall, embankment, jetty, dike, dam, sluice, revetment,
reservoir, retention or holding basin, control gate, or breakwater; facilities
for controlled drainage, regulation of stream flow, and protection of an
outlet; the vacation of a ditch or drain; equipment and furnishings; and all
required appurtenances and necessary real estate and interests in real estate.

(a)
The registered professional engineer employed or appointed by the board of
county commissioners to be the county sanitary engineer as provided in this
section3;

(b)
The
county engineer, if, for as long as and to the extent that engineer by
agreement entered into under section
315.14 of the Revised Code is
retained to discharge duties of a county sanitary engineer under this chapter.

(5)
"Current
operating expenses," "debt charges," "permanent improvement," "public
obligations," and "subdivision" have the same meanings as in section
133.01 of the Revised Code.

(6)
"Construct," "construction," or "constructing" means construction,
reconstruction, enlargement, extension, improvement, renovation, repair, and
replacement of sanitary or drainage facilities or of prevention or replacement
facilities, but does not include any repairs, replacements, or similar actions
that do not constitute and qualify as permanent improvements.

(7)
"Maintain," "maintaining," or "maintenance" means repairs, replacements, and
similar actions that constitute and are payable as current operating expenses
and that are required to restore sanitary or drainage facilities or prevention
or replacement facilities to, or to continue sanitary or drainage facilities or
prevention or replacement facilities in, good order and working condition, but
does not include construction of permanent improvements.

(8)
"Public agency" means a state and any agency or subdivision of a state,
including a county, a municipal corporation, or other subdivision.

(9)
"Combined
sewer" means a sewer system that is designed to collect and convey sewage,
including domestic, commercial, and industrial wastewater, and storm water
through a single-pipe system to a treatment works or combined sewer overflow
outfall approved by the director of environmental protection.

(1)
For the purpose of preserving and
promoting the public health and welfare, a board of county commissioners may
lay out, establish, consolidate, or otherwise modify the boundaries of, and
maintain, one or more sewer districts within the county and outside municipal
corporations and may have a registered professional engineer make the surveys
necessary for the determination of the proper boundaries of each district,
which shall be designated by an appropriate name or number. The board may
acquire, construct, maintain, and operate within any district sanitary or
drainage facilities that it determines to be necessary or appropriate for the
collection of sewage and other wastes originating in or entering the district,
to comply with the provisions of a contract entered into for the purposes
described in sections
6117.41 to
6117.44 of the Revised Code and
pursuant to those sections or other applicable provisions of law, or for the
collection, control, or abatement of waters originating or accumulating in, or
flowing in, into, or through, the district, and other sanitary or drainage
facilities, within or outside of the district, that it determines to be
necessary or appropriate to conduct the wastes and waters to a proper outlet
and to provide for their proper treatment, disposal, and disposition. The board
may provide for the protection of the sanitary and drainage facilities and may
negotiate and enter into a contract with any public agency or person for the
management, maintenance, operation, and repair of any of the facilities on
behalf of the county upon the terms and conditions that may be agreed upon with
the agency or person and that may be determined by the board to be in the best
interests of the county. By contract with any public agency or person operating
sanitary or drainage facilities within or outside of the county, the board may
provide a proper outlet for any of the wastes and waters and for their proper
treatment, disposal, and disposition.

(2)
For purposes of preventing storm water from entering a combined sewer and
causing an overflow or an inflow to a sanitary sewer, the board may acquire,
design, construct, operate, repair, maintain, and provide for a project or
program that separates storm water from a combined sewer or for a prevention or
replacement facility that prevents or minimizes storm water from entering a
combined sewer or a sanitary sewer.

(C)
The board of county commissioners may employ a registered professional engineer
to be the county sanitary engineer for the time and on the terms it considers
best and may authorize the county sanitary engineer to employ necessary
assistants upon the terms fixed by the board. Prior to the initial assignment
of drainage facilities duties to the county sanitary engineer, if the county
sanitary engineer is not the county engineer, the board first shall offer to
enter into an agreement with the county engineer pursuant to section
315.14 of the Revised Code for
assistance in the performance of those duties of the board pertaining to
drainage facilities, and the county engineer shall accept or reject the offer
within thirty days after the date the offer is made.

The board may create
and maintain a sanitary engineering department, which shall be under its
supervision and which shall be headed by the county sanitary engineer, for the
purpose of aiding it in the performance of its duties under this chapter and
Chapter 6103. of the Revised Code or its other duties regarding sanitation,
drainage, and water supply provided by law. The board shall provide suitable
facilities for the use of the department and shall provide for and pay the
compensation of the county sanitary engineer and all authorized necessary
expenses of the county sanitary engineer and the sanitary engineering
department. The county sanitary engineer, with the approval of the board, may
appoint necessary assistants and clerks, and the compensation of those
assistants and clerks shall be provided for and paid by the board.

(D)
The
board of county commissioners may adopt, publish, administer, and enforce rules
for the construction, maintenance, protection, and use of county-owned or
county-operated sanitary and drainage facilities and prevention or replacement
facilities outside municipal corporations, and of sanitary and drainage
facilities and prevention or replacement facilities within municipal
corporations that are owned or operated by the county or that discharge into
sanitary or drainage facilities or prevention or replacement facilities owned
or operated by the county, including, but not limited to, rules for the
establishment and use of any connections, the termination in accordance with
reasonable procedures of sanitary service for the nonpayment of county sanitary
rates and charges and, if so determined, the concurrent termination of any
county water service for the nonpayment of those rates and charges, the
termination in accordance with reasonable procedures of drainage service for
the nonpayment of county drainage rates and charges, and the establishment and
use of security deposits to the extent considered necessary to ensure the
payment of county sanitary or drainage rates and charges. The rules shall not
be inconsistent with the laws of this state or any applicable rules of the
director of environmental protection.

(E)
No sanitary or drainage facilities or prevention or replacement facilities
shall be constructed in any county outside municipal corporations by any person
until the plans and specifications have been approved by the board of county
commissioners, and any construction shall be done under the supervision of the
county sanitary engineer. Not less than thirty days before the date drainage
plans are submitted to the board for its approval, the plans shall be submitted
to the county engineer. If the county engineer is of the opinion after review
that the facilities will have a significant adverse effect on roads, culverts,
bridges, or existing maintenance within the county, the county engineer may
submit a written opinion to the board not later than thirty days after the date
the plans are submitted to the county engineer. The board may take action
relative to the drainage plans only after the earliest of receiving the written
opinion of the county engineer, receiving a written waiver of submission of an
opinion from the county engineer, or passage of thirty days from the date the
plans are submitted to the county engineer. Any person constructing the
facilities shall pay to the county all expenses incurred by the board in
connection with the construction.

(F)
The county sanitary engineer or the county sanitary engineer's authorized
assistants or agents, when properly identified in writing or otherwise and
after written notice is delivered to the owner at least five days in advance or
is mailed at least five days in advance by first class or certified mail to the
owner's tax mailing address, may enter upon any public or private property for
the purpose of making, and may make, surveys or inspections necessary for the
laying out of sewer districts or the design or evaluation of county sanitary or
drainage facilities or prevention or replacement facilities. This entry is not
a trespass and is not to be considered an entry in connection with any
appropriation of property proceedings under sections
163.01 to
163.22 of the Revised Code that may
be pending. No person or public agency shall forbid the county sanitary
engineer or the county sanitary engineer's authorized assistants or agents to
enter, or interfere with their entry, upon the property for that purpose or
forbid or interfere with their making of surveys or inspections. If actual
damage is done to property by the making of the surveys and inspections, the
board shall pay the reasonable value of the damage to the property owner, and
the cost shall be included in the cost of the facilities and may be included in
any special assessments to be levied and collected to pay that cost.